Liege Recap

A nightmare followed by a dominant victory.

Tadej Pogacar crashed and abandoned the race 80 kilometers in. I was heartbroken he would not have the chance to rewrite the history books yet again this spring, but even more worried about the rest of his season, particularly the Tour de France.

It was later reported that he had broken two bones in his wrist and would immediately undergo surgery to repair the scaphoid. Quick Google searches on the part of all cycling aficionados reported that this could be a 6-12 week injury, which could rule him out of the Tour completely. Fortunately for my mental health, this did not really sink in and I did not process it enough to be horrified.

A Godsend came Monday morning: it was announced by his team that he would be out 4-6 weeks and the only thing really in jeopardy was a pre-Tour altitude camp. While that is quite important preparation for Le Grand Boucle, I doubt he will miss it completely. The wrist does not affect one’s ability to pedal a bike, merely one’s ability to handle it. So Pogacar could be on a trainer today if he wanted to, but he’ll take a bit of time off (which dovetails with the interesting point that this injury comes at almost the perfect time, if there is such a thing, because he was probably about to take a few days to a week off the bike to recover from the spring season and regroup for a tilt at the Tour anyways).

UAE can jet him up to the top of a mountain somewhere and set up a trainer for him to ride either at altitude or drive him down to the valley below so that he can do his efforts at sea level and push the watts he wants. If the wrist heals properly partly through the camp, he can hop on the road bike after that. I am not worried about his fitness going into the Tour.

The only thing that bothers me was his insistence on riding the Tour of Slovenia as a preparation race for the Tour. It is not the most prestigious race, and as a great champion, he should be gunning for the Dauphine or the Tour de Suisse. But with this injury, I doubt he will change his schedule especially since Slovenia happens after the Dauphine, giving him more time to recover.

Without Pogacar in the race, there is not much to be written. Remco Evenepoel piloted his team to control the entire race and slowly throttled the breakaway, which was never given more than 4:30 anyways. A doomed attack by a few third-tier favorites Jan Tratnik and Magnus Sheffield was reeled in before the racing really heated up. Remco burnt his final domestique on the lower slopes of La Redoute before finally taking off near the summit, dropping the entire peloton. Pidcock came back to him on the descent, and wisely refused to pull. Remco then just rode him off his wheel on the next uncategorized climb and soloed easily to the finish, absolutely crawling down every descent and still winning by over a minute. Pidcock won the sprint for second and Santiago Buitrago surprisingly rounded out the podium.

It is Remco’s first victory in the World Champion’s skinsuit and his second consecutive victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He looks good for the Giro d’Italia beginning in a few weeks.